CVE-2026-113074 in Chrome
Summary
by MITRE • 10/21/2026
Use after free in Media in Google Chrome on on Windows prior to 156.0.8078.47 allowed a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code inside the sandbox via a crafted HTML page. (Chromium security severity: Low)
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/21/2026
The vulnerability identified as a use-after-free condition within Google Chrome's media handling subsystem on Windows represents a critical memory management flaw that was addressed in version 156.0.8078.47. This specific class of vulnerabilities occurs when an application continues to reference a pointer after the memory it points to has been freed, leading to undefined behavior that can be exploited by malicious actors. In this instance, the defect resided within the components responsible for processing media content, which are inherently complex due to their interaction with various codecs and hardware acceleration features. The Chromium project classified the security severity of this issue as Low, likely reflecting the difficulty in achieving reliable exploitation or the limited scope of potential impact under normal circumstances, yet it remains a significant risk given the high attack surface presented by web browsers.
From a technical perspective, use-after-free vulnerabilities are particularly dangerous because they allow an attacker to manipulate memory states that should be inaccessible. When media data is processed, Chrome allocates specific buffers and structures to handle audio or video streams. If these resources are deallocated prematurely while still being referenced by other parts of the application logic, subsequent operations may read from or write to invalid memory locations. An attacker can craft a malicious HTML page containing specially designed media elements that trigger this premature deallocation sequence. By carefully controlling the timing and content of the media data, an adversary can overwrite adjacent heap structures with controlled values, effectively gaining arbitrary read-write capabilities within the process address space.
The operational impact of successfully exploiting this vulnerability is severe, as it enables remote code execution inside Chrome's sandboxed environment. Modern browsers employ a multi-process architecture where renderer processes run in restricted sandboxes to limit the damage caused by compromise. However, if an attacker can leverage a use-after-free flaw to escape these restrictions or execute arbitrary instructions within the privileged context of the browser process, they gain full control over the user's system. This could lead to data theft, installation of malware, or further lateral movement within a network. The fact that this vulnerability allows code execution inside the sandbox highlights the importance of robust memory safety practices and effective exploit mitigation techniques such as heap hardening and address space layout randomization.
This incident aligns with Common Weakness Enumeration identifier CWE-416, which describes use after free errors, and is relevant to MITRE ATT&CK technique T1203, specifically the exploitation of vulnerabilities for initial access or execution. To mitigate such risks, organizations should ensure that all endpoints are updated to the latest stable version of Google Chrome, as patches like 156.0.8078.47 directly address these memory safety issues. Additionally, deploying browser isolation solutions and enforcing strict content security policies can reduce the likelihood of users encountering crafted malicious pages. Developers contributing to or using similar media processing libraries should prioritize rigorous testing for memory management errors and consider adopting languages with automatic garbage collection or static analysis tools that detect dangling pointer usage before deployment.